Israel buys most oil smuggled from ISIS territory – report

Israel has become the main buyer for oil from ISIS controlled territory, reports “al-Araby al-Jadeed.”

Kurdish and Turkish smugglers are transporting oil from ISIS controlled territory in Syria and Iraq and selling it to Israel, according to several reports in the Arab and Russian media. An estimated 20,000-40,000 barrels of oil are produced daily in ISIS controlled territory generating $1-1.5 million daily profit for the terrorist organization.The oil is extracted from Dir A-Zur in Syria and two fields in Iraq and transported to the Kurdish city of Zakhu in a triangle of land near the borders of Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Israeli and Turkish mediators come to the city and when prices are agreed, the oil is smuggled to the Turkish city of Silop marked as originating from Kurdish regions of Iraq and sold for $15-18 per barrel (WTI and Brent Crude currently sell for $41 and $45 per barrel) to the Israeli mediator, a man in his 50s with dual Greek-Israeli citizenship known as Dr. Farid. He transports the oil via several Turkish ports and then onto other ports, with Israel among the main destinations.

In August, the “Financial Times” reported that Israel obtained 75% of its oil supplies from Iraqi Kurdistan. More than a third of such exports go through the port of Ceyhan, which the FT describe as a “potential gateway for ISIS-smuggled crude.”

Israeli Colonel Caught with IS Pants Down

This was definitely not supposed to happen. It seems that an Israeli military man with the rank of colonel was “caught with IS pants down.” By that I mean he was captured amid a gaggle of so-called IS–or Islamic State or ISIS or DAESH depending on your preference–terrorists, by soldiers of the Iraqi army. Under interrogation by the Iraqi intelligence he apparently said a lot regarding the role of Netanyahu’s IDF in supporting IS.

In late October an Iranian news agency, quoting a senior Iraqi intelligence officer, reported the capture of an Israeli army colonel, named Yusi Oulen Shahak, reportedly related to the ISIS Golani Battalion operating in Iraq in the Salahuddin front. In a statement to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency a Commander of the Iraqi Army stated, “The security and popular forces have held captive an Israeli colonel.” He added that the IDF colonel “had participated in the Takfiri ISIL group’s terrorist operations.” He said the colonel was arrested together with a number of ISIL or IS terrorists, giving the details: “The Israeli colonel’s name is Yusi Oulen Shahak and is ranked colonel in Golani Brigade… with the security and military code of Re34356578765az231434.”

Why Israel?

Ever since the beginning of Russia’s very effective IS bombing of select targets in Syria on September 30, details of the very dirty role of not only Washington, but also NATO member Turkey under President Erdogan, Qatar and other states has come into the sunlight for the first time.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that at least a faction in the Obama Administration has played a very dirty behind-the-scenes role in supporting IS in order to advance the removal of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and pave the way for what inevitably would be a Libya-style chaos and destruction which would make the present Syrian refugee crisis in Europe a mere warmup by comparison.

The “pro-IS faction” in Washington includes the so-called neo-conservatives centered around disgraced former CIA head and executioner of the Iraqi “surge” General David Petraeus. It also includes US General John R. Allen, who since September 2014 had served as President Obama’s Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and, until she resigned in February 2013, it included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Significantly, General John Allen, an unceasing advocate of a US-led “No Fly Zone” inside Syria along the border to Turkey, something President Obama refused, was relieved of his post on 23 October, 2015. That was shortly after launch of the highly-effective Russian strikes on Syrian IS and Al Qaeda’s Al Nusra Front terrorist sites changed the entire situation in the geopolitical picture of Syria and the entire Middle East.

According to unconfirmed reports by opposition groups, target was a weapons shipment intended for Hezbollah

An Israeli F-16 during an exercise on November 25, 2013. (Ofer Zidon/Flash90)

Israel reportedly carried out an airstrike Wednesday near the airport in the Syrian capital Damascus, according to Israel’s Channel 2 TV, which cited Syrian media reports.

The reports were unconfirmed but according to Syrian opposition groups, the target was a weapons shipments likely intended for Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, Israeli Channel 10 said.

Israel is reported to have been behind a series of air raids on Syrian soil, since the Syrian civil war began in March 2011, aimed at preventing advanced weapons shipments from Iran from reaching arch-enemy Hezbollah via Syria.

Jerusalem has not openly admitted to being behind such operations. It has, however, warned that it will not permit the Lebanon-based terror group to obtain what it calls “game-changing” advanced weaponry.

Israeli airstrikes hit near Damascus airport – Syrian state TV

Israeli airstrikes have hit targets near Damascus International Airport and in the town of Dimas near the Lebanon border, Syrian state TV reports.

“The Israeli enemy committed aggression against Syria by targeting two safe areas in Damascus province, in all of Dimas and near the Damascus International Airport,” the report said, adding that there were no casualties.

Israel provided intel on suspected bomb on Russian jet — report

Debris from the A321 Russian airliner at the site of the crash in Wadi el-Zolomat, a mountainous area in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, on November 1, 2015. (AFP/Khaled Desouki)

Israel provided intelligence regarding the Russian plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula, which indicated that a bomb had detonated on board, CNN reported on Sunday.

An unnamed US official and diplomatic source said that Jerusalem handed over information about the blast to the US and UK. One US official told the news outlet he was “99.9% certain” the plane had been bombed, while another said it was “likely.”

Israeli officials declined to comment on the report.

Earlier, a member of the Egyptian investigation team said they were nearly certain explosives had brought the plane down, killing all 224 passengers on board.

“The indications and analysis so far of the sound on the black box indicate it was a bomb,” an investigator — who asked to not be identified — told Reuters. “We are 90 percent sure it was a bomb.”

As for the slim chance of another explanation to the crash, the investigator only commented, “I can’t discuss this now.”

US and British officials have cited intelligence reports indicating that the October 31 flight from the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg was brought down by a bomb on the plane.

Most of the passengers were from St. Petersburg and the surrounding region.

Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan says the Iranian Armed Forces always stand ready to respond to any malicious moves by the US and the Israeli regime.

The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue to “boost its defense capability” and is prepared to respond to any mischievous acts by Washington and Tel Aviv, Dehqan said on Saturday.

He said the preparedness of the Iranian Armed Forces is based on its defense doctrine and the need to counter threats and also in line with its policy to support the anti-Israeli resistance movement in all fields.

He made the remarks in response to statements made by Israel’s Minister of Military Affairs Moshe Ya’alon and US Defense Minister Ashton Carter regarding a nuclear agreement reached between Iran and six world powers in mid-July and the possibility of a military action against the Islamic Republic in case of Iran’s alleged non-compliance with the agreement.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Washington on October 28, Carter claimed that the agreement between Iran and the P5+1 countries removed “just one source of uncertainty and risk.”

An IDF soldier was killed and 11 others injured when an Arab attacker, armed with a gun and a knife, opened fire at a bus station in the city of Beersheba in the south of the country. Local media also said that an Eritrean man was mistaken for an assailant and attacked by police.

The perpetrator made his way into the station and started shooting and stabbing people inside, in what is one of the most violent attacks since the escalation began, the police said. An Israeli soldier was killed, four police officers were lightly injured and seven civilians received wounds of varying degrees in the attack.

Despite bringing a gun with him, the man also snatched the weapon from the soldier he gunned down, Yoram Halevy, a police commander in southern Israel, told journalists. The Arab attacker, whose identity was not immediately revealed, was shot and killed by the police, she added.

It was initially reported that the attacker had an accomplice, who was wounded and detained by the police. But it later turned out that the Israeli security forces shot a foreign national after mistaking him for the assailant.

Police responding to the attack entered the bus station from another area and saw a “foreign national,” opening fire and wounding him, Halevy confirmed.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the injured man was a citizen of Eritrea, who has been residing in Israel.

An angry Israeli crowd, chanting “death to Arabs” gathered outside the bus station after the attack, Reuters reported.

The Sunday attack has become the most serious incident in the string of violence in Israel caused by tensions surrounding a Jerusalem holy site, the al-Aqsa mosque, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

Israeli ministers outraged over US State Department criticism

Israeli ministers condemn the US State Department for a statement made by Spokesperson John Kirby yesterday, according to which Israel is using excessive force against Palestinian terrorists in the recent wave of violence.

Oct 15, 2015, 12:50PM | Yael Klein

Israeli officials are furious following the statement made yesterday by US State Department Spokesperson John Kirby, according to which the Israeli security forces “may be using excessive force” when thwarting Palestinian terror attacks. “The statement is so distorted and groundless that I expect President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to renounce it and clarify the United States’ position,” Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan stated this morning.

Minister Erdan, who is in charge of the police forces in the field, stressed that the instructions given to the forces are moral and justified. “Every sane person knowns how the police in the US would react if terrorists armed with axes and knives tried to murder civilians in New York or in Washington. I say this before even beginning to mention the US bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan during their justified fight against terrorism,” he stated. “Hypocrisy must know some limits.”

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (center) seen at the site where a Jewish teenager was lightly injured when he was stabbed by a Palestinian in Jerusalem on October 9, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Friday, October 16, 2015 | 08:46:45 AM

Two top ministers lashed out on Thursday at American officials for what they described as equivocation over Palestinian terror attacks and a US State Department statement that appeared to accept accusations that Israel has used excessive force in recent days.

Within minutes of the comments by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon Thursday morning, a top Prime Minister’s Office official informed cabinet ministers that they were being ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cease all public criticism of American officials.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and a spokesman for the department have in recent days appeared to link or equate a spate of Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis with Israeli policies in the West Bank and on the Temple Mount, a position Erdan called “idiotic.”

“I don’t know whether to call them naive, in the US State Department and in the American government,” a visibly angry Erdan, who oversees the police forces battling the terror wave, told Army Radio Thursday morning. “Instead of putting out idiotic declarations that pretend to address two equally guilty sides, they [should] focus pressure on the murderous, inciting Palestinian Authority; because of its incitement, young people go out and commit murderous acts.”

Despite stating otherwise, the Russian airstrikes so far has targetted non-Daesh targets, including several bases of anit-regime rebel groups [file photo of a member of the Aleppo Es Samiyye Front]

Israel will provide Russia with intelligence information about opposition sites in Syria to facilitate Moscow’s military operations, Channel 2TV has reported. The Israeli network said that a senior delegation of Russian army officials will arrive in Israel on Tuesday to coordinate the military cooperation.The delegation will be led by First Deputy Chief of General Staff General Nikolai Bogdanovsky, who will meet his Israeli counterpart, Major-General Yair Golan as well as senior officials in Israeli military intelligence, the air force and the Mossad. Channel 2 noted that the visit follows the meeting between Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow three weeks ago.

Israeli jets launch new raids on Gaza Strip

A Palestinian man looks at the damage following an Israeli airstrike on a Hamas police facility in Gaza City on September 30, 2015. (AFP)

Israeli fighter jets have launched airstrikes on an area in the central Gaza Strip while another Palestinian is shot to death by Israeli troops.

The early Monday attacks, which hit two sites belonging to the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, were carried out after rockets were allegedly fired from the enclave towards an uninhabited area in southern Israel.

There has been no word on the possible casualties and damage inflicted by those strikes.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian youth during clashes in the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

Red Crescent: Nearly 500 Palestinians injured in 3 days

Israeli soldiers east of the West Bank city of Nablus, on October 3, 2015, during a search for the suspected Palestinian killers of a settler couple. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh/File)

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — At least 499 Palestinians have been injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers across the occupied Palestinian Territory since Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Monday.Spokesperson Errab Foqoha told Ma’an that at least 41 Palestinians had been shot with live rounds, while 143 were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets.She said that some 297 Palestinians had suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, while another 18 were injured when they were physically assaulted.Israeli forces have also killed two Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, in fierce clashes that have swept across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since Friday.

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